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EDITORIAL: Stay strong on pipeline battles

Published 5:43 p.m. ET Sept. 13, 2017

In this March 29, 2016, file photo, activists and residents from across Bergen County deliver petitions against the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline project in New York and New Jersey. Resistance isn’t futile when it comes to fighting pipeline projects.(Photo: ~File photo)

An important vote looms Thursday in the ongoing struggle to prevent New Jersey from being littered with a proliferation of new pipelines crisscrossing the state.

Opponents seem likely to fail this time. But the fight must go on, because neither the state, nor consumers, nor anyone else other than the companies behind these projects will benefit from every one of these pipelines. Until authorities can prove otherwise, we continue to urge environmentalists, municipalities and everyone else with a stake in the process to make their voices heard, because a defeat now can still lead to victory elsewhere.

Of immediate interest is the Southern Reliability Link, a 30-mile South Jersey natural gas line that would cut across part of New Jersey’s pristine Pine Barrens. The portion that invades that preserved land is up for vote by the Pinelands Commission on Thursday. Expect it to pass. The commission has been reshaped in the anti-environmental image of Gov. Chris Christie — and protecting the region is not its first order of business.

After that, it should be clear sailing for the project, which would only then need a few minor permits after securing approvals from the Board of Public Utilities and the Department of Environmental Protection. Municipalities along the line have jumped on board.

All this for a pipeline that will essentially serve as a backup for the existing natural gas network. Proponents say it’s needed to protect against major disruptions. Critics counter that it’s too much money — $180 million — and too much environmental risk for a pipeline highly unlikely to ever be needed.

It’s a controversial plan, in the sense that all pipelines are subject to concern and skepticism. The die may be cast, but the opposition might still have legal cards to play. We urge them to do so, because we don’t yet know what a new governor might bring to the environmental table. But at the very least it’s difficult to imagine either Phil Murphy or Kim Guadagno being any more of a pipeline advocate than Christie. If the Southern Reliability Link can’t be derailed, perhaps others can be.

Natural gas and oil pipeline proposals have emerged all across the state, fueled in significant part by the success of hydraulic fracturing — fracking — in unlocking vast new fossil-fuel resources. While some may have value, they aren’t all needed. But each is judged individually, as if other plans scarcely exist, giving each an inflated importance.

Resistance has often been fierce, and sometimes effective. The Pilgrim Pipeline, a nearly 200-mile line that would run from Albany, N.Y. to Linden, suffered a major setback earlier this year when two companies involved in the project backed out, citing the nearly unanimous opposition along the proposed route. The PennEast line that would stretch from Pennsylvania to Mercer County has been slowed by landowners refusing access to their land for surveys.

So our advice is to keep fighting the good fight against these pipelines, regardless of the fate of the Southern Reliability Link.